The following is an op-ed submitted to Ohio newspapers for the Thanksgiving holiday.

by Warren Taylor and Joe Logan

As American families prepare their Thanksgiving turkeys, they should thank local livestock farmers producing beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and dairy products. Unfortunately, politicians, lobbyists and trade negotiators in DC are working against those farmers. Shockingly, in our great country, which celebrates independent farmers and ranchers, America’s largest pork processor is Shuanghui International Holdings, a Chinese corporation. Our second largest beef company, JBS USA is a Brazilian corporation. These trans-national corporate giants show the extent of consolidation, and how globalization has played out.

These huge businesses find it profitable to shop global markets for low cost meat cuts that end up for sale in American supermarkets. Their profits soar higher as they avoid labeling the meat’s source. Customers trust American farmers and regulators to provide safe, healthy food products. Not necessarily so for Chinese or Brazilian meat.

Naturally, these meat packers oppose requirements to label the sources of meats. Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) is that law. Although passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2002, foreign and trans-national food corporations have prevented implementation, and now look to repeal COOL.

It’s disappointing that they have found powerful allies in the Beef and Pork promotion organizations authorized by Congress and mostly funded by American farmers and ranchers. The National Cattlemens Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) are adamant opponents of COOL. The very livestock promotion organizations who should speak for American farmers and ranchers are working against their interests and the interests of 90% of American consumers seeking honest information about how and where their food is produced.

Impossible? Most other industrial agriculture nations require Country Of Origin Labeling for food. The American Meat Institute, The National Grocers Association, McDonalds and others shamelessly interested in sourcing the cheapest food possible, have assaulted America’s COOL laws. After passage in the 2002 Farm Bill and surviving four Federal Court suits, COOL is facing repeated World Trade Organization (WTO) challenges.

It’s bad enough when American business interests used money and influence to get their way in Washington DC, now it is multinational corporations’ agenda lobbying against COOL, clearly against America’s farmers’ best interests.

Sub. H.B. 490 – the large, catch-all bill which began life as part of Gov. John Kasich’s Mid Biennium Review package of legislation meant to make budget adjustments. The bill covers both the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture and Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources areas of governmental responsibility. OFU has taken an “interested-party” position, due to the large number of subjects covered in the bill. OFU has told legislators it is supportive of tightened regulations on saline injection – or frack water disposal – wells. The bill also creates a path toward ODNR being able to provide first responders information about the chemicals being used at an oil or gas drilling site in the event of an accident. That language is rather nebulous, however, leaving it to ODNR management to implement. This issue will bear watching if 490 moves on through the Senate and to the governor’s desk.

OFU suggested in testimony by President Joe Logan some potential additions to the parts of the bill regarding nutrient management. Working with the Ohio Environmental Council, OFU is seeking amendments which would allow the state to aggregate and analyze data from nutrient management and manure management plans to get watershed-wide views of manure and chemical fertilizer sales/production/use.

S.B. 296 – is sponsored by State Sen. Cliff Hite, R-Findlay, and is supported by Ohio Farmers Union. A main provision of the bill provides that retail filling station operators are not responsible for mistakes customers make in putting the wrong fuel in their vehicles. (So long as the pumps are clearly marked and the station is in compliance with all other laws and regulations.) Ohio’s ethanol producers have urged farmers to support this because some filling station operators have refused to provide E85 or other fuel choices because they say customers may not pay attention while fueling, unintentionally pump the wrong fuel into their vehicle and then sue the station for damages. Ohio Farmers Union testimony was provided by OFU Treasurer Roger Wise.

Ohio Farmers Union President Joe Logan has been appointed to a national committee that provides advice on environmental, agricultural and rural development issues to the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Logan will serve on the Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Committee.

According to a letter sent Logan by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the committee “provides advice, information and recommendations to the Administrator on a broad range of environmental issues and policies …”

The committee’s members represent a broad range of interests including academia, farmers, ag industry interest groups and state and local government representatives.

“This year’s water quality issues in Lake Erie validate the importance of issues that touch on both the agricultural industry and the environment,” Logan said.

“I’m pleased to represent Ohio’s farmers on this important committee. I believe Administrator McCarthy takes seriously the advice and real-world experience brought to the EPA’s decision-making process by the committee,” Logan said.

“I intend to take the same pragmatic approach to my work on the committee that I take as a leader in the Ohio Farmers Union. Regulation should be targeted, not one-size-fits-all and based in science and real-world data,” Logan said.

Logan is a dairy farmer from Kinsman, Ohio who has built a second career serving agricultural and environmental interests. He has been a leader in the Ohio Farmers Union for several years. This is his second stint as president and he has also served as the group’s legislative director. He also worked on agricultural and water quality issues for several years at the Ohio Environmental Council.

Ohio Farmers Union Calls for Targeted State Action on Algal Blooms

In wake of Toledo problems and recent forum, family farm group feels a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach may not be best for farmers on environment.

COLUMBUS – Ohio Farmers Union President Joe Logan said today that Ohio agriculture can and should be a part of fixing Lake Erie’s harmful algal blooms (HAB) and outlined several policy positions OFU may take to state legislators later this year and into the next General Assembly.

“The information we have to work with today tells us that the there is a problem in the Lake Erie watershed, but not the specific sources or locations. There’s a hole in the data; we need to fill that hole,” Logan said.

House Agriculture Chairman Dave Hall told Hannah News last week that his committee will continue to pursue H.B. 490 in the lame duck session of the legislature after the elections. The bill in its current form is supported by OFU due to water quality and safety measures related to the handling of wastewater from Ohio’s growing fracking industry.

The bill also includes some ag provisions including moving the state’s agricultural pollution abatement program – which focuses on livestock farming – from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources to the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture. Logan said H.B. 490 could be an important part of Ohio’s effort to control nutrient runoff and the algal blooms they can feed.

OFU will ask Hall’s committee for an amendment to H.B. 490 that would do two things. First, for ODA to establish procedures for all operators of confined animal feeding operations or their third party distribution contractors to report the amount of manure delivered to other persons and the location to which it was delivered. This is to address a so-called ‘manure loophole’ in state regulations where manure distribution from a regulated location is outsourced, stretching the chain of accountability to the breaking point.

I’m working on a story and our own video coverage from what turned out to be an excellent set of presentations from Dr. Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant; Greg LaBarge, OSU Extension; Todd Hesterman, farmer and NW Ohio Coordinator of Conservation in Action and Adam Rissien from the Ohio Environmental Council. For now, find below the PowerPoint presentations from our presenters and links to media coverage of the event. Thanks to all who attended and to our presenters!

The Ohio Farmers Union will bring together scientists and agricultural experts in late September in a forum on seeking solutions for the annual algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie.

The forum will be held Sept. 22, 1 p.m., at Forrester’s on the River, Boers-Boyer Way, 26 Main St., Toledo. The event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are appreciated to Linda Borton, Ohio Farmers Union, at lborton@ohfarmersunion.org.

OFU President Joe Logan said it’s important for farmers to acknowledge their part in Lake Erie’s woes, and that OFU is trying to help spread the word on innovative farm management practices that assure that farmers are doing their part to protect Ohio’s waters.

“Farms dominate the landscape in the western Lake Erie watershed and farmers use many tons of phosphorus and nitrogen to grow crops – so people naturally look toward agriculture as a contributor to Lake Erie’s excess nutrient loads,” Logan said.

“Farmers always try to keep nutrients on their land, but the increasing intensity of rain storms make doing so more challenging. Farmers may need to embrace new management practices and new technology,” he added.

Logan said OFU is committed to information on water quality and agriculture being “fact and science-based.” He also said that broad, regulatory programs may not be the silver bullet for solving Ohio’s water quality issues but “innovative agricultural practices, along with targeted state and federal regulations will be more likely to attain our goals.”

Logan hopes the forum will be a reasoned and productive discussion among farmers, scientists, urban interests and agency officials that can support their collective effort toward saving Lake Erie.

“We have a very serious problem threatening a crucially important state, national and international resource – it’s time for everyone to get on board and begin working together toward an effective solution.” Logan said.Download the Flyer

Ohio Farmers Union President Joe Logan today released a letter he has emailed and posted to Gov. John Kasich regarding S.B. 310 which would freeze Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency mandates.

In the photo above, State Sen. Robert Hagan talks to Ohio Farmers Union members at the Statehouse last Wednesday about the state of fracking regulation and his proposal to raise the state’s severance tax. Hagan’s proposal calls for a 7.5 percent “frack tax” which is still well below other gas and oil producing states such as Oklahoma and Texas. Gov. John Kasich’s most recent proposal would raise the severance tax on fracked oil and gas to 2.5 percent – and put a good portion of the revenue into a state income tax cut that would primarily benefit upper income earners.

State Rep. Nickie Antonio is working with Sen. Hagan on many issues related to fracking and severance taxes in Ohio. She and Hagan hosted OFU’s first meeting Wednesday.

Above, OFU Vice President Bill Miller discusses manure management and loopholes in current state law affecting waste management in livestock farming with Spencer Gross. Gross is the legislative aide for State Rep. Timothy Derickson, Miller’s representative. OFU’s lobbying day this year coincided with a tremendously busy committee schedule for both houses of the state legislature as senators and members dealt with opening hearings on the governor’s Mid Biennium Review bill (MBR). The MBR comes in the second year of each biennial budget and is the opportunity to tweak the state budget. Additionally, both houses are currently working on the first state Capital Bill in four years.

The Ohio Farmers Union has a new president and rural concerns about the long-term effects of fracking and the disposal of toxic drilling wastewater continue to dominate policy discussions among its membership.

OFU held its 80th annual state convention this past weekend. With 110 delegates attending from the state’s county Farmers Union organizations and several additional non-voting members, the family-farmer and consumer oriented group had its largest convention in several years. Nearly 250 people packed the convention hall for remarks by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, right, speaks to OFU youth delegate Joe Schmitz of Darke County at the 80th OFU Convention.

Brown will get the chance this week to vote once again on the beleaguered, two-year delayed Farm Bill. The U.S. House accepted political compromise last week and approved a final version of the bill. Pending Senate passage later this week, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the measure which will replace most direct payments to farmers with an enhanced system of crop insurance.

“There are several titles in the farm bill, all of them important to this state. You think about rural development, you think about conservation titles, you think about commodities in title one and what we’ve been able to do there, and obviously you think about the nutrition part and all that helps make our state better,” Brown said.

“I’m virtually certain we’ll pass it, and I am virtually certain the president of the United States will sign it,” Brown added.